Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mechanistic Models Of Biofilm Growth In Porous Media, Priyank Jaiswal, K. Fathiya Al-Hadrami, Estella A. Atekwana, Eliot A. Atekwana

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Nondestructive acoustics methods can be used to monitor in situ biofilm growth in porous media. In practice, however, acoustic methods remain underutilized due to the lack of models that can translate acoustic data into rock properties in the context of biofilm. In this paper we present mechanistic models of biofilm growth in porous media. The models are used to quantitatively interpret arrival times and amplitudes recorded in the 29 day long Davis et al. (2010) physical scale biostimulation experiment in terms of biofilm morphologies and saturation. The model pivots on addressing the sediment elastic behavior using the lower Hashin-Shtrikman bounds …